Courts • Woman, 49, allegedly had a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old student.

By Jessica Miller The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 11, 2012 6:50 pm

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

A secretary at Mt. Nebo Jr. High School is facing charges after police say she had a sexual relationship with a former student.

Montreia Barney, 49, was charged Friday in 4th District Court with one count each of third-degree felony unlawful sexual conduct with a 16- or 17-year-old, and class A misdemeanor obstructing justice.

Barney's relationship with the 16-year-old boy began in the summer of 2010 with multiple phone calls, including phone sex, according to court documents.

Barney, a finance secretary at the school, allegedly asked the victim to meet her at a local church parking lot during that summer.

The boy agreed to the meeting and sat inside of Barney's vehicle, where the two performed sex acts on each other, court documents state. Their 15-minute sexual rendezvous was cut short when the boy's brother approached the car, asking what was going on. Barney allegedly told the brother that she had been stood up on a tennis game by a friend, so she was just "hanging out" with the 16-year-old.

In March 2012, police questioned Barney about the incident, court documents state, and she allegedly denied any inappropriate phone calls with students and denied any meetings with students outside of the school, other than running into students at local stores.

After police confronted her with witness statements about her car being in the parking lot of the church, she allegedly told them she got lost while going to play tennis, made a U-turn in the parking lot and had a chance encounter with the 16-year-old that lasted two to three minutes.

Calls to the Nebo School District about the status of Barney's employment were not returned Friday evening.